The Music area comprises of three well equipped teaching rooms, an instrumental teaching /study room, a rehearsal room and a studio. We are situated next to the Conference and Drama halls.
The two main teaching rooms are fitted out with a music lab system serving 16 Yamaha PSR1500 keyboards with USB and internet capability. There are four networked PC’s in each room, running Sibelius 5 as well as other score writing and printing programmes, enabling students to record, edit and print out compositions of professional quality. The interactive whiteboards are in use every lesson and are a fantastic resource tool, bringing the world of music into the classroom.
The instrumental tuition / study room has a good upright piano and two Yamaha keyboards linked to two networked PC’s and a drum kit. This room is used very much for instrumental teaching, but at break and lunchtimes it is well used by students working on compositions or just having a ‘Jam’ session.
The studio is waiting to be re-furbished, but houses digital CD recording equipment, piano, drum kit, mixers and amplifiers. We have recently purchased a new P.A.system and mixing desk, along with radio mics. These have been used in concerts and produced good quality sound.
The Conference Hall is our venue for college concerts. It has recently been extended, so now we are able to erect our new staging and still have room for a 200 capacity audience. In 2006 we purchased a new Yamaha Baby Grand piano for this hall, as we would like to develop Tollbar as a public concert venue. Last term new stage lighting was installed and this made a huge difference to the ambience of the hall during our Easter concert.
The community centre has recently been re-modelled to create English / Drama room and a Music room. In here we have a large store area for the steel pans, African drums and equipment used in rehearsals. The more traditional approach to class music teaching also takes place in here and is ideal for working on multi cultural projects. It will also be used for rehearsals at the end of the day. A new Yamaha Clavinova has been purchased for this room.
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